DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

"State of the English Cities" Report

John Prescott: Today the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is publishing a major report entitled "State of the English Cities."
	This is an independent report to Government by a group of city experts led by Professor Michael Parkinson at Liverpool John Moores University. It is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of England's cities and towns, looking at their performance, the challenges they face, and their potential.
	It fulfils the Government's commitment in the Urban White Paper 2000, "Our Towns and Cities: The Future", to commission a report in five years on the progress and performance of English cities.
	The report reveals that England's major cities and towns are recovering after years of decline and are once again becoming successful places to live, work and enjoy; thanks to a combination of sustained economic growth, rising public investment, and strong local leadership.
	Its key finding is that England's cities are better placed than at any time since the end of 19th century to become engines of regional and national growth, creating a unique opportunity to close the economic performance gap between England's cities and the very best cities in Europe.
	The report focuses on 56 major towns and cities in England with populations above 125,000 people. It provides a wealth of evidence to show they are getting better. There has been a reversal in population decline, rising economic performance and employment rates, and improvements in social cohesion, liveability and integration. It shows that national policies have made a real difference, with the gap beginning to narrow between poorer neighbourhoods and the rest of the country.
	But English cities also face difficult challenges in order to develop further. Whilst they have higher number of jobs, they also have higher rates of worklessness. Deprivation levels are higher in cities than elsewhere in England. Most cities have seen substantial economic recovery, with Northern cities picking up, but there is still more to do to catch up with the best performers in England, which trail behind their European counterparts.
	The report highlights that:
	The rebirth of our cities has been the culmination of an enormous amount of activity and change over the past eight years with the introduction of a range of measures to tackle the underlying causes of urban decline.
	The establishment of the RDAs, Employment Action Zones, an Urban Taskforce and the neighbourhood renewal unit, followed by policies to strengthen sustainable communities have been the backbone of a cross-Whitehall drive to reinvigorate cities and regions and to devolve decision making to the most appropriate level.
	Cities matter for regional and national success. The successful economic recovery of our cities must be sustained and spread more widely, within the cities themselves, throughout their regions and across the country. London is in a league of its own but all our urban areas need to continue to improve to match the European and North American best. Closing the gap remains a big challenge.
	There is a need to address key drivers of economic success, notably transport, skills and land use, and to do so at the level of the city region—the economic area beyond municipal boundaries.
	Strong local leadership, both public and private, is crucial in helping to find new economic futures for cities, their businesses and residents. Trusting and empowering cities and local leaders is essential to delivering local, regional and national ambitions, with stronger incentives to encourage cooperative working.
	The State of the English Cities report raises a number of key policy implications for cities and regions; and for Government to build on the opportunities and tackle the challenges faced in the years ahead.
	The Government will use the evidence base provided by the report in taking forward work strengthening the urban renaissance, in the context of work being done in the Comprehensive Spending Review for 2007. They are already working with a range of cities across the country, including the eight English Core Cities, to help them develop "business cases" to deliver a step change in their economic, social and cultural performance; and the second round of City Summits beyond the biggest cities to include smaller urban centres will take place from March to May this year, will help to inform this work going forward.
	The Local Government White Paper will be published later this year.
	Copies of the report have been placed in the Libraries of the House. Further copies can be downloaded from http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stateofthecities.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Points-based Migration System

Charles Clarke: Today I am publishing the Government's response to the recent consultation on a new points-based system for managed migration. This is being published as 'A Points-Based System: Making Migration Work for Britain' (Cm 6741) and copies are available in the House Library.
	I am very pleased to be able to publish our detailed policies for a new managed migration system. These are a result of an intensive consultation process involving face to face contact with 1200 stakeholders as well as 517 written responses. As the document I am publishing today says, we have been able to adopt a number of the very constructive suggestions made during the consultation process.
	The UK needs a world-class migration system to attract the brightest and best from across the world while being robust against attempted abuse. This new system will give employers and educational institutions a stronger role in the managed migration system, and will introduce a more transparent and objective method of points-based structured decision making. Applicants will be able to self-assess online to check whether they have enough points to make an application before spending time and money on making a formal application.
	The FiveYear Strategy on Immigration and Asylum (Controlling our Borders: Making migration work for Britain) published in February 2005 said that we would be phasing out existing low-skilled migration routes. I can announce today that the remaining food processing quota of the Sectors Based Scheme, which was cut in July 2005 to 3,500, will be terminated at the end of this year, and the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme will be phased out by the end of 2010. This is in response to the large numbers of nationals from the 10 countries which joined the EU in May 2004 who have registered to work in these sectors, and follows the termination of the hospitality quota under the Sectors Based Scheme in July 2005.
	The policies published today are a significant step in the Government's aim to achieve greater public confidence in the immigration system, and will ensure that managed migration continues to benefit the UK.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Draft Smoking (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Shaun Woodward: This statement announces that, on 6 March, I launched an eight-week public consultation exercise on the draft Smoking (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 (the draft Order). In my previous statement to the House, on 18 October, I announced my intention to introduce comprehensive measures to protect all workers and the public from the dangers of passive smoking and second-hand smoke in workplaces and in all enclosed public places in Northern Ireland, including all pubs and all bars. The draft Order represents the next stage in this process.
	As I made clear in my previous statement, there is strong public support in Northern Ireland for comprehensive controls on tobacco use. Questions about strengthening existing controls on tobacco use elicited 70,823 responses of which 91.18 per cent. supported comprehensive controls similar to those already in place in the Republic of Ireland and due to be introduced in Scotland later this month.
	The draft Order, Explanatory Memorandum, Integrated Impact Assessment Overview—incorporating a Regulatory Impact Assessment—and a structured questionnaire will be distributed to a wide range of interests across Northern Ireland and will also be made available on the Department's website.
	The draft Order makes provision for enclosed or substantially enclosed premises to be smoke-free; provides for the Department to make regulations to exempt certain premises, or parts of premises, under certain conditions (this does not include licensed premises); gives the Department the power to designate other places (which need not be enclosed or substantially enclosed) as smoke-free; enables the Department to make regulations to provide for vehicles to be smoke-free; creates a duty to display no-smoking signs; sets out offences and penalties for failure to display signs, smoking in a smoke-free place and failing to prevent smoking in a smoke-free place; and gives the Department the power to make regulations to change the age (but not lower than 16) of young persons to whom tobacco may be sold.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council

James Plaskitt: The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council will be held on 10 March in Brussels. There are no health or consumer affairs issues. I shall be representing the UK.
	The first and main item is the Preparation for the Spring European Council which will be held on the 24 March 2006. The "Key Messages" paper presented by the Employment Committee and the Social Protection Committee identifies the key messages emerging from the numerous other reports for adoption and endorsement at this March Council. The presidency has posed two questions to help focus the discussion. The first question is on the role of the social partners in strengthening the Lisbon process and the second question is on the progress made with social protection and social inclusion. The "Key Messages" paper will be adopted following a policy debate.
	The second item is an exchange of views on the Preparation for the Tripartite Social Summit. This will be held on 23 March in advance of the Spring European Council to allow the European Social Partners leave to feed in their views to the Spring Council. It consists of the current presidency, the two subsequent presidencies (Finland and Germany), the Commission and the social partners. It meets at least once a year, including before each annual Spring Council.
	The Committee Chairs will provide information on the work programmes of the Employment Committee and the Social Protection Committee for 2006. The Council is annually informed about the Committees' work programmes.
	The Council will reach general agreement on Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council Amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community and Council Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 (Miscellaneous amendments 2005). This is a regular update of the regulation which coordinates social security within the European Union. It is tabled for general approach as the European Parliament has not yet had their first reading of the dossier.
	The final agenda item will be a Commission presentation on the report on Transitional Arrangements set out in 2003 Accession Treaty. These are the measures allowing member states to restrict, for a transitional period, free movement of workers from eight of the new member states. The UK has opened up its labour market and has a Worker Registration Scheme. Some member states may intervene to discuss free movement of workers.
	Under "Any Other Business" there is a Commission presentation on the "Roadmap" for Gender Equality and on a proposal for a Regulation establishing the European Globalisation Fund. There are three written items on presidency conferences: "Demographic Challenges—Family Needs Partnership", "Innovations in Labour Market Policies—Challenges in Times of Globalisation" and "Joint Action of Member States against Harmful Traditional Practices". I do not expect any debate on these items.